


the best years

by tomkitty



Series: Miscellanea; File LitComp (Works In Progress) [5]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Characters to be added, Don't copy to another site, Gen, No Apocalypse (Umbrella Academy), let five have a real childhood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:22:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23556757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomkitty/pseuds/tomkitty
Summary: Five travels to the future and stops on March 24th, 2019. He tries to travel back but it unable to. He has no choice but to go back to the academy as he is now. For him it's only been about 5 minutes, for everyone else it's been 16 years. With Reginald dead and Five returned to them, and still a 13 year old kid with the rest of them being adults, how are they going to figure this one out?
Series: Miscellanea; File LitComp (Works In Progress) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1658149
Comments: 7
Kudos: 67





	the best years

**Author's Note:**

> This is just one of many wip's I have. I don't have a set updating schedule so I'm not sure when I'll be updating this story next. Please read at your own risk.

“I want to time travel.”

“No.”

“But I’m ready. I’ve been practicing my spatial jumps, just like you said.” Five gets up from his chair and jumps so that he’s standing right next to Reginald. “See!”

“A spatial jump is trivial when compared with the unknowns of time travel.” Five glares at Reginald as he drones on nonsensically, talking about ice water and acorns.

Five huffs angrily. “I don’t get it.”

“Hence the reason you’re not ready.” Five glares at Reginald still, how is he not ready! Spatial jumps are child’s play. He’s ready for time travel! He knows he is.

He chances a glance at Vanya who shakes her head at him. He considers listening to her, she’s always been a sort of moral compass for him, if it’s enough to upset Vanya then he should stop. He usually does, but here and now? For the old man to not even listen to him? Why won’t he listen?

“I’m not afraid,” Five tries one more time. 

“Fear isn’t the issue. The effects it might have on your body, even on your mind, are far too unpredictable. Now, I forbid you to talk about this anymore.”

Five can feel his anger building at the clear dismissal. If Reginald thinks that he’s just going to take that as an answer then the old man is losing it. He is ready for time travel. He is! He’ll just have to prove it. 

Turning on his heel, Five storms out of the room and continues on out of the house, ignoring Reginald’s shouts for him to come back. He’ll show him. He’ll travel to the future, grab something as proof, and travel back. He will. Five continues walking, letting the energy build around him, reaching his consciousness forward, then he takes a running start and uses that momentum to pull himself forward. 

The scenery around him changes instantly. It’s brighter outside, there are leaves on the trees around him, outdoor vendors on the side of the road. 

He smiles to himself, feeling smug. “Not ready my ass.” 

He lets the energy build around him again, reaches out with his consciousness, and pulls himself forward in time again. It’s winter now and there’s snow falling around him. He does it again, this time it’s raining. He does it again. And again. He jumps one last time and he’s standing next to a newspaper dispenser. He picks one up and zeros in on the date. March 24th, 2019. He did it. He traveled 17 years into the future. He’ll bring this back with him and shove it in Reginald’s face. Proof that he could do it, that the old man shouldn’t have doubted him. 

He reaches out, feels the energy build around him and then, nothing. What? He tries again, he reaches out, tries to reach back, but he hits a block. He clenches his fists, tries it with a running start, but nothing.

“Come on! Come on!” Five shouts. Again and again he tries. Making his way back down the street, running to try to build up momentum for the jump, but it doesn’t work. 

Nothing works.

Shit! Shit! Shit! What has he done? He can’t go back! He’s stranded himself in the future with no way of getting home! Five can feel tears welling up in his eyes and wipes at them with the back of his hand. 

Wait, home. He looks up and he’s standing back in front of the academy entrance. He has no choice. He’s gonna have to ask the old man for help. If he even can help. He approaches the door and pauses, everyone’s going to be older, so much older. They all would have grown up, moved on without him. Would they have forgotten about him?

No. They wouldn’t. They’re his family. They would have missed him. Right? 

Five shakes his head, banishing those thoughts from his mind, and jumps inside.

\---

The first thing Five notices is the music. He can hear “I Think We’re Alone Now” being blasted from Luther’s room and he has to laugh. Luther must have done something really bad if he had to resort to using that song. 

It’s a well known fact amongst his siblings that Luther is not the best with words. He may be Number One, great at giving orders, but when it came down to it, he was a terrible leader. Diego may be the one with the stutter but Luther? Luther can’t clearly articulate his thoughts and was constantly offending his siblings by saying the wrong thing, even if he didn’t mean to. He was awful at apologizing, not able to say much more than a simple ‘I’m sorry’ without stumbling over himself trying to find the right words and couldn’t properly explain himself to save his life.

But what Luther does have is music. He has so many records in his room and he has certain records that he knows are his siblings favorites, so whenever one of them is upset with him he’ll play a record for them and they’ll know he’s sorry.  
It’s a public apology in a way, because with how loud the song gets played? Everyone in the house hears it. By now, everyone knows which songs are meant for which person and depending on which songs are played they can all tell the severity of how bad Luther fucked up.

So for Luther to be playing that particular song? Well, Five just knows he must have offended everyone at a massive level. Five can’t help but close his eyes and laugh. All these years and Luther still can’t stop putting his foot in his mouth.

When Five finally looks up he sees a woman dancing in front of the stairwell. She’s older and has her eyes closed as she moves along to the music but Five would recognize those dance moves anywhere. 

“Vanya!” Five cries out, running towards his sister. 

Vanya opens her eyes just in time for her to see someone running towards her. Wait, not someone, it’s Five! 

“Five?!” Vanya exclaims just as Five barrels into her, knocked her over and onto the ground. “What? You’re here! You’re back! You came back to us! We didn’t know where you went Five! I’ve been so worried!” Her eyes filled with tears as she tightened her grip on Five, pulling him close, scared that he might vanish.

It’s then that it hits him. For him it’s only been a few minutes but for them it’s been years. He started to cry then, the guilt of his actions crashing down on him. “I’m sorry Van, I’m so so sorry! I didn’t mean to leave! I didn’t mean to! I tried to go back! But I couldn’t! I couldn’t do it! I’m sorry!”

“What’s going o-” Diego came into the room then. He could hear shouts from the other side of the door and came over to investigate but never would he have guessed that what he would find Vanya crying with her arms wrapped tightly around Five, who was also crying. Five, their brother who went missing all those years ago.

“F-Fi-ive?” Diego was getting choked up. “H-How are, are y-y-” He cut himself off and rushed over to kneel next to the pair. He wrapped his arms around them, not even caring that he was essentially giving Vanya a hug while trying to press in close to Five. He had missed his brother so much. Diego may try to act tough but he cried for weeks after Five went missing and made himself positively sick with worry. It’s no surprise that he started crying again now.

**Author's Note:**

> if it seems ooc well, i don't really care. in this Five is 13 and therefore still a kid, he's not an old man here. let the kid cry if he wants.


End file.
